Source · Select Committees · Health and Social Care Committee
Recommendation 3
3
Accepted
Paragraph: 18
Roll-out patient information campaign to clarify NHS dental services and entitlements
Conclusion
A lack of public awareness about NHS dental services and how practices operate is contributing to access issues. The Government and NHS England should roll-out a patient information campaign with the aim of improving awareness of how NHS dentistry will work and ensure the public are better informed about what they are entitled to. This should clarify common misconceptions, for example, about patient registration, recall periods, and NHS dental charges and exemptions.
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation, clarifying that there is no formal patient registration system. It supports adherence to NICE recall guidelines and details existing measures from 2022 reforms for practices to provide urgent dental care and use risk-based recalls, with NHS England monitoring compliance and sharing data with ICBs.
Paragraph Reference:
18
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
Accept The Department accepts this recommendation, with the strong caveat that there is no requirement for patients to be registered with a specific dental practice, and practices are obliged to only deliver a course of treatment. Therefore, no formal process is in place to maintain patient registrations, including removal of registrations, although many practices do tend to see patients regularly on a voluntary basis. However, we fully support the recommendation for adherence to NICE recall guidelines. As part of our reforms announced in July 2022, practices have been reminded that urgent dental care should be provided as part of their core service offer to patients, and that adherence to risk based recall intervals and other NICE guidance is a contractual requirement. Last year, NHS England implemented a renewed focus on implementation of personalised, evidence-based recall intervals. With data submitted via FP17 forms, completed by dental practitioners as part of delivering NHS courses of treatment, we are monitoring recall intervals for patients who are identified as having good oral health, with the expectation that these will move towards 24 months. The output of this data is already being shared monthly with ICBs and we are looking to share this more widely with the profession. NHS England have also published a support tool to help practices prioritise their recall lists of child patients here and a further case study can be found here.